American Water

American Water describes itself as "the largest investor-owned U.S. water and wastewater utility company." It supplies "drinking water, wastewater and other related services to approximately 15 million people in 32 [U.S.] states and Ontario, Canada," according to an April 2009 press release.


 * Jeremy Pelczer - former president

Opposition
In 2004, the German utility company RWE -- then the owner of American Water -- "enlisted a public-relations firm to send letters and make telephone calls against" a local ballot initiative in Felton, California, supporting public ownership of the local water system. "Its Californian subsidiary acknowledges giving tens of thousands of dollars to a local property owners' association that filed a legal challenge against the referendum."

"In Monterey, about an hour's drive south of Felton, RWE spent more than $300,000 to defeat a measure proposing a study of whether to buy back the water system. In Chattanooga, [Tennessee], where water has been in private hands since the Civil War, Mayor Ron Littlefield has approached RWE's local unit about a municipal buyout. ... Laurel Prussing, the mayor of Urbana, Ill., became interested in a municipal buyout after a growing number of 'boil orders,' when people are told they must boil their water to make it safe to drink. ... Voters in Lexington, [Kentucky], will weigh this fall [2006] whether to try to seize RWE's unit there by eminent domain -- an idea that some in Felton are discussing too."

Public relations
Marketing and advertising director MaryBeth Vrees and Senior vice-president of corporate communications Laura Monica are "working on a rebranding and repositioning of American Water, which includes environmental stewardship, and innovative use of technology," reported PR Week in April 2009. Part of those efforts was the company's first "interactive online annual report," launched in March 2009, meant as both a cost-savings measure (relative to traditional, printed annual reports) and a "brand awareness push." The online report also allows American Water "to learn what has caught visitors' interest and to determine what to expand upon in the future."

In January 2009, American Water retained the public relations firm MWW Group.

History
American Water was founded in 1886 as the American Water Works & Guarantee Company, and in 1947 reorganized and renamed the American Water Works Company. In January 2003, the German utility company RWE acquired the company for $8.6 billion and renamed it American Water.

In November 2005, RWE announced plans to sell American Water and its water services division, RWE Thames Water. The sale was part of RWE's plan to focus on "selling electricity, natural gas and water in European markets," reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Associated Press reported that RWE never saw the "heady profits" it anticipated from its "international water empire that cost more than $10 billion to assemble and spanned more than 40 countries at its height. ... Water turns out to be less like electricity than RWE hoped. It's heavy and hard to transport, making it difficult for a big company to build economies of scale. Regulation is never predictable. In the U.S., RWE found itself fighting in town referendums and state legislatures across the country, winning many battles but losing the war. ... 'People are just kind of weird with water,' says [[Catherine Bowie'', a community-relations manager for RWE's subsidiary in California."

In April 2008, American Water shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $21.50 per share, in its initial public offering of 58 million shares of common stock. The "selling stockholder" was RWE, with net proceeds from the offering going to RWE. "After the initial public offering, and assuming no exercise of the underwriters' option, the selling stockholder is expected to own approximately 64 percent of American Water's shares," according to an April 2008 American Water press release.

In December 2008, American Water announced its intention for a "follow-on public offering" of the company's common stock. "The proposed offering would include a $300 million (and up to an additional $90 million in connection with the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares) secondary offering by the selling stockholder, a subsidiary of RWE AG, with proceeds going to RWE and concurrently, a $300 million primary offering by American Water Works Company, Inc will occur with proceeds used to redeem short-term debt," according to a company press release.

Personnel
As of April 2009, according to the company's website:
 * Donald L. Correll - President and Chief Executive Officer
 * John S. Young - President of American Water Services and American Water Works Service Company
 * Ellen C. Wolf - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
 * Emily Ashworth - Vice President and Chief Information Officer
 * Walter Lynch - President of Regulated Operations
 * George W. Patrick - Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
 * William D. Patterson - Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development
 * Laura L. Monica - Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications & External Affairs
 * Sean Burke - Senior Vice President of Human Resources
 * Mark Strauss - President of American Water Enterprises
 * Edward D. Vallejo - Vice President, Investor Relations
 * Sharon C. Cameron - President, American Water Resources, Inc.
 * B. Kent Turner - President, California American Water
 * Paul G. Townsley - President, Arizona American Water, New Mexico American Water and Hawaii American Water
 * William R. Walsh - President, Virginia American Water and Maryland American Water
 * William M. Varley - President, Long Island American Water
 * Karla Olson Teasley - President, Illinois American Water
 * Nick O. Rowe - President, Kentucky American Water
 * Kathy L. Pape - President, Pennsylvania American Water
 * Wayne Morgan - President, West Virginia American Water
 * David K. Little - President, Ohio American Water
 * Terry Gloriod - President, Missouri American Water
 * Kenneth B. Earnhardt Jr. - President, Iowa American Water
 * John R. Bigelow - President, New Jersey American Water
 * David Baker - President, Indiana American Water and Michigan American Water
 * John S. Watson - President, Tennessee American Water

Contact details
American Water corporate headquarters 1025 Laurel Oak Road Voorhees, NJ 08043

Phone: 1-856-346-8200 Website: http://www.amwater.com

Related SourceWatch articles

 * GE Water & Process Technologies
 * Kentucky American Water
 * The Moriah Group
 * MWW Group
 * Public Private Partnerships